Courage, with a Side of Fries

Despite the chill in the air, January 2020 sizzled with activity for ECPAT-USA. At the heart of our mission are the lived experiences of survivors of childhood sex trafficking and exploitation. While these tragic forms of abuse target children of all backgrounds, survivors frequently share a sense of shame for the harm that was inflicted on them and many are fearful or reluctant to add their voices to policy discussions about strategies for fighting this abuse. Their perspectives are critical, however, to ensuring that anti-trafficking policies are both effective and respect the dignity of the survivor community.

It was with great excitement, then, that ECPAT-USA convened an informal “meet & greet” at Junior’s Deli in Brooklyn for the New York-based members of our Survivors’ Council, six brave women and one very brave man, who have drawn upon their histories of childhood abuse to educate, inform and protect others.  Over burgers, fries and, of course, Junior’s famous cheesecake, long-time leaders of the Survivors' Council chatted with our newest members about topics familiar to any social gathering: children, school, work and, essential for any New Yorker, the search for affordable apartment rentals. 

Any diner nearby would have found the gathering unremarkable. And yet, as the scheduled one-hour meal stretched into two and then three, the words of this friendly banter took on a deeper, more urgent meaning.  How does one begin to trust others after being molested by a family member?  After experiencing abuse, how does a young person muster the will to complete high school and, in some cases, college and grad school?  What does love look like? Members also expressed their concern over initiatives to decriminalize the sex trade, trumpeted as a way to protect prostituted people, but in reality offering a free pass to pimps and sex buyers. Council members talked about the men who had paid to buy their bodies--men with money, privilege and opportunities that they themselves had been denied--and wondered why any government thought it was necessary to protect those “johns.” Fortified by strawberry cheesecake, the Survivors’ Council pledged their renewed efforts to educate others about the harms of normalizing the sale of human beings for sex and started to brainstorm about upcoming outreach opportunities.

Making connections at the Survivors’ Council meet and greet.

It was with this inspiring group in mind that I spoke before the House of Representatives, Tom Lantos Commission on Human Rights, in commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Sex trafficking was a tragic reality two decades ago, but at the time, few understood that there is no such thing as a “child prostitute.” In a spirit of bipartisanship that can now only be described as breathtaking, members of Congress passed sweeping legislation that offered comprehensive protections for victims, set penalties for those who buy and sell them and established benchmarks on efforts to fight trafficking around the globe. With impeachment proceedings occurring just down the hall, ECPAT-USA spoke of the continuance of that bipartisan spirit in the last year’s enactment of SESTA/FOSTA, a landmark bill that disrupted the market for sex trafficking by penalizing websites that knowingly sell children or trafficking victims online for sex. For a copy of ECPAT-USA’s remarks, click here.

The vision of our Survivors’ Council was again present as ECPAT-USA attended the White House summit on human trafficking on January 31, the last day of what is known as “National Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention Month.”  A range of speakers from across the nation shared strategies for combatting abuse, but what resonated most clearly were the two survivors whose personal histories bookended the event. Jessica, a domestic survivor of trafficking, spoke about her childhood, which was plagued by sexual abuse and drug addiction. A Delta Airlines flight attendant, volunteering with a prison ministry, identified Jessica as a victim of sex trafficking while she was serving a lengthy prison sentence. Jessica accessed critical support that helped to secure her release, an internship at Delta Airlines, the custody of her children and economic independence. Closing the conference was Bella, trafficked from Togo to the United States and recovered in 2007 along with 19 other girls. Today, Bella is a college graduate, U.S. citizen and newest member of the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking. Both Jessica and Bella served as stirring tributes to extraordinary courage and strength in the face of unimaginable adversity. However, their stories also serve as a testament to the Congressional mandate 20 years ago that trafficking victims require comprehensive services and legal protections without regard to their criminal history or immigration status.  

ECPAT-USA remains committed to the vision that no child, regardless of their race,  religion, gender, sexual identity, national origin or disability, should be bought, sold or used for sex. Please join with us, our partners and our courageous Survivors’ Council, to make that vision a reality.